Adrianne Palicki’s ‘Wonder Woman’ Costume Revealed

Ever since NBC’s Wonder Woman series was announced, fans of the DC Comics legend have been debating what David E. Kelley’s interpretation of Diana Prince’s famed superhero costume would look like.

With Entertainment Weekly’s release of the first official photo from the pilot, we see exactly what Adrianne Palicki will look like when she takes to the streets to fight crime.

Inspired by elements from both the classic and re-envisioned look of Wonder Woman, Kelley may have made his first big mistake when it comes to bringing this famed character to the small screen.

By simply mimicking the look of the comics, instead of delivering his own vision of the character, Kelley has come across one of the least acknowledged traits of superhero costumes – most direct interpretations of superhero costumes look terrible when they’re taken outside the medium of comics or animation.

While the colorful, and fantastical, wardrobes of iconic comic book characters look wonderful on the page or in animated features, these same eye-popping colors and cleverly designed outfits simply cannot exist in a three-dimensional world.

Without someone taking the time to decide the best way to interpret these characters and their outfits for other mediums, you will always end up with embarrassingly uninspired costumes – the same as the one pictured above.

Not only does the costume look ridiculous, but it somehow manages to make the always beautiful Adrianne Palicki unattractive – to such an extent that many will have to look twice at the image to make sure it’s not the WWE’s Chyna dressing up for Halloween.

Since the start, Kelley’s resume, which is filled with television legal dramas, has brought doubts about his ability to fully realize a superhero television series. After the script for the pilot leaked out, those doubts grew exponentially. With the release of this terrible image, the naysayers appear to have won.

While filming of the Wonder Woman pilot is currently underway, and it’s possible (although, extremely unlikely) that the finished product could be amazing, I’d be lying if I said that I’d be surprised if this pilot ever sees the light of day, let alone picked up for a series.

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TERRARTS4 years ago

THIS LOOKS VERY HORRIBLE….NOW I’M NOT TRUE IF I’M GONNA WATCH THIS THING WHEN IT COMES OUT.

isnt the main plot that she runs a company who selld and promotes wonder woman merchandice? that would mean that its a successful business. if you saw someone like this on the news kicking someone’s ass would you run out and buy something with them on it or laugh and assumed they escaped a metal ward to make an apperance at a low rent comic-con? this is sad..they should have approached this like smallville and show the trials of her trying to make a costume work .. in that case the outfit would work cause its just step one in an ongoing evolution… but right now this whole thing is just sad.. a great oppertunity wasted by bad casting and bad direction.

There is a clear cut difference between Kal-El and Diana, though. He was orphaned here not knowing who or what he truly was originally. Wonder Woman grew up on Paradise Island (Themyscira, for the newbies)and always knew who she was and what she came from and decided to bring that to the outside world. A completely different dynamic that this pilot’s creators ARE NOT talented enough to tackle, write about, or present. It is not that the original story is not credible. It is that David E. Kelley is not talented enough to handle it. He even said in an interview just the other day that “it is out of his wheelhouse.” So, he basically had to re-write the character as Ally McBeal. Well, I guess Ally McBeal in porn-vinyl.

Please tell me thats photoshop!! The suit looks extremely difficult to take on & off. I realize this will be a TV show, but come on!! I think I saw the same plastic suit at my local halloween store. Wonder Woman was always a hot, toned, tough, amazonian warrior, but this chick looks young, cute, pouty & unsure of herself!! Not WONDER WOMAN MATERIAL AT ALL!! They shouldve gotten someone more foreign looking, intimidating & darker, almost like Pocahontas or with a very disciplined appearance like the blue chick from Avatar not this pale stripper. Her expression says “Get this crap off of me…what the hell did I get myself into!?” Poor lady must be embarrassed!

Hmmm…I make costumes for halloween and haunted houses and this definately looks like a rental. The bustier,if you will, defys gravity much like Lynda Carter’s costume. I dont see this actress running or jumping alot in this get up, unless she is glued into it with pros-aid. Other wise we would have countless janet styled wardrobe malfunctions on the set. My hope is that this costume is, as said by others, an encarnation and not the final. I am certain they could make a better costume and lose the metalic sheen on the blue area. Lynda Carter’s costume looked authentic to the source material…(not sure how others on this blog feel about that series) but the costume worked. This one just looks plastic! The gold areas look more lke corroded brass.

I couldn’t agree more. After all the heat Marvel heroes bee treated on film over the years, seems like DC/WB is starting to go down that road with it’s characters. Costume is a joke. If she had her blonde hair show & name show Wondergirl, then the costume might be just right for a show.

Hey Vic! Seems that the overwhelming majority of posters think the costume looks like utter garbage but I know there are a lot more lurkers than posters so……..Do you suppose we could have a poll to vote on whether we like the new look or not?

It might send a clearer message to the idio……*ahem* PEOPLE responsible for creating this cheesy Halloween costume.

Has this show really been green-lit for 13 episodes? Or is it still in the pilot phase?

DC live action TV shows really haven’t gotten very far this century aside from Smallville. Let’s see… Aquaman (nope), Birds of Prey (nope), now this. Going back even further there was that Justice League pilot from 15 years ago or so – boy, was that awful.

Pilot phase. But Kelley has the magic touch at ramming his schlock through. If Wonder Woman fans are lucky it will never air, because even if it only runs for 13 episodes it will ruin the chance of a seriously creative and quality big screen adaptation from happening for two more decades.

I just read the WW Pilot Script review as provided by Vic via link. What this photo does not say is WHEN the costume will be used in the episode. Remember that the review states Diana’s “sale of WW merchandise”. How do we know that this costume is not a selling tool for Diana’s company? She could be in all-jet black during the fight sequences and this costume could simply be used for marketing.

These are things that apparently we’ll know about in the first few minutes of the episode, but it’s questionable if we’ll get to see it at all. NBC is desperate and Kelley has paid off for other networks thus far (Ally McBeal and Boston Public for Fox, Boston Legal and The Practice for ABC), but as everyone has noted, Wonder Woman is the toughest nut to crack in the DC universe as she has had the least amount of leeway with fans. Again, I will be there for the show on the premiere night and I hope you all will as well just so we get to see what Kelley did with our favorite strongarming female superhero. Thoughts??

Vic, if ever there was a poll question, “Will you watch the Wonder Woman Pilot as laid out by David E. Kelley?”

Actually this is the new costume. The classic one, as you know since you’ve read the script as have I, is hanging in her closet. She mockingly quips about it.

As for her wearing all black, that wouldn’t help. That is not wondrous at all. She’s not Black Widow, she’s frickin Wonder Woman. I don’t mind the bright colors, it’s the plastic Belgian sex-worker texture that is horrendous. In a richer fabric the colors would fly (and on an actress who didn’t look like Tori Spelling in a wig– that jaw).

Back to the script: Just as an example of how truly awful David E. Kelley is, the actual first fight scene where she first appears as Wonder Woman is set to Beyonce’s Single Ladies. Yes, you heard right. It is an actual music cue in the script! What’s worse is the scene isn’t even in a club or bar, it’s on the street, so the music is just a track overdub. As I recall in the script…fight on street erupts, Wonder Woman jumps into action (cue Single Ladies-Beyonce). This is what he calls non-campy.

David E. Kelley is a cliche-worn, cheese-ridden hack and that’s what he put out for a pilot script. This costume is just one example in a long line of many. I tried watching his new show with Kathy Bates and it’s ludicrous. She plays a 600k a year law partner who throws it all away to work in the ghetto in her own law firm/designer shoe store. Again, yes you read that right. Law firm/ladies shoe store. This is what Kelley passes clever, believable and not at all unlikely(?)

So be prepared for Ally McBeal in pleather, whining about how she can’t find the right man and how sales for her merchandise line is down and, oh yeah, in between she might find time to fight crime. This has Halle Berry’s Catwoman written all over it.

I can understand people having different tastes, and having opinions regarding this or that writer or producer or director. I have plenty of those opinions myself. And, for my part, I’ve never seen any of the series that David E. Kelley has been involved in, nor am I particularly interested in a new version of “Wonder Woman”. (In fact, I’m currently ignoring NBC all together because they cancelled “The Cape”, which I liked.)

What I don’t understand is people outright trashing Kelley. I may not have watched his stuff, but somebody else sure did. A quick look at IMDB shows him having his hand in eight different series that lasted a total of forty years. Plus ten Emmies. If I worked for a network and was looking to fill a position, that looks like a pretty good resume to me.

I don’t really like Taco Bell, but a hell of a lot of people do. I’m sure they don’t mourn my absence. Who would I expect Hollywood to listen to – the guy who contributed to 40 years of popular TV, or the guy who’s managed not to watch any of those shows?

Television – at least network television – is for the masses. If you watch it, more likely than not you’ll get stuff that’s watered down and shaped to cater to the masses. And comic books are not read by the masses. TV is just not geared towards us. It rarely has been, and it doesn’t seem to suffer much for it.

Criticize the choices. Watch or don’t watch the show. But don’t waste your energy bashing a guy for being successful. Bash the guys instead who killed the good stuff – “Firefly”, “Brisco County”, etc. They actually have it coming.

where are her hips? She fine up top with the push up rig, but she isn’t filling out the costume at all. Linda Carter had that thin waist and those man loving hips.. Her symetry is off because she has thin legs as well. Just my 2 cents.

WOW!!! I just showed my 2 year old nephew the pic & asked him, “What is that silly woman wearing?” & in his adorable 2 year old speech he says, “thats a halloween costume”. Classic!! I laughed too much! Even a 2 year old boy knows it from a halloween store, lol!

“…its garishness was fine in the comic strip and even in the original TV series, but it looks out of place now. Aside from that, I hope the series does well.”

This looks nothing like the original TV series or comics. Colors aside, please tell me when Wonder Woman ever wore Hooker-Vinyl??? The point of the colors is she is an ambassador and savior much like Superman. She doesn’t have to worry about blending into the shadows (or the crowd, for that matter) like the Dark Knight!! She’s an ancient Amazon princess with the powers of the gods! Why is it, no one EVER questions Superman’s rather impractical and ridiculous outfit? Could it be because he’s a man. Tell me the tactical advantage of wearing briefs OVER tights and a cape that would give every assailant something to grab hold of in a fight???

Aside from that, I hope this pilot fails so we can get a truly creative and serious big-screen adaptation.

TV show fails, what chance do you think the film would have? They’ve tried it off and on for years. Search Joel Silver Wonder Woman on Google or Yahoo and bake in the stories. Joss freaking Whedon was attached to write and direct at one point and they couldn’t get it made because of script issues. Now he’s been lost to some random Marvel movie (oh yeah… The Avengers!!). Great going there Silver!

Yeah, TV show fails, may be another 30 years for a movie to make it unless Warner loses the rights to it as well.

You don’t need to tell me. Joel Silver is a 4th rate producer (if) who was a 2nd rate producer in the 80s. DC is not as smart as Marvel. They allow one of their properties to be held unused for going on two decades. There are statutes for this. They should wrest control from Silver and sell to a creative-minded, talented producer. Instead Kelley is allowed on TV (different character rights) to ruin it before it has a chance on the big screen.

From all accounts, Whedon’s WW script was ingenious, faithful, and classic. That isn’t what Silver wanted. Google Silver (LOL) and look at him. Not a creative brain trust operating inside that enormous head.

Well, Kevin Feige of Marvel has entrusted not only script-writing but directing, as well, on the biggest project that all of Marvel Studios is hinged upon to who??? Oh, that’s right Joss Whedon. It’s not that I think Whedon is always great. He’s not. But it certainly sheds some light on what happened. Marvel cares about its characters and its fan-base in regard to movies. DC sells to the highest bidder and turns their backs.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but remember to distinguish between Warner Brothers and D.C. Yes, the former owns the latter, but generally speaking, it’s the WB execs who tend to screw around with the various D.C. properties, leaving the D.C. execs to TRY to clean up whatever disastrous mess results…WB can put out great things, but it often ignores (like so many studios, unfortunately) important details it does not understand.

I don’t blame D.C. for anything but giving control of an iconic property to untalented, intellectual midgets. It’s just a shame. And yes, the control has been given to WB, who seems to care about these characters as much as someone marketing a brand of cereal would care. I’m just lamenting what could have been.

I think the new comic suit would have worked better, but this is not half bad. I can’t get over how everyone slams any attempt to revive shows like this. Just overly negative reviews and thoughts right off from the least little thought before it even gets on the air. Funny the old show was corny as could be but was a success. And Bionic Woman as well. But as corny as it was it did a lot better than the new version partly becouse of constant down play a critizim before it could get its footing. My little girl loved the costume, I am not a huge fan, I like the suit I knew from the old comics and show but hey what ever gets it out there for the new kids and entertainment. Lord knows our little girls need some strong good females to look up too. unlike pop culture of trash the trend is feeding us now

Actually, Bionic Woman went for the drama angle more, but was not as successful as the WW series which, I’ll admit, was cornier. This, coming from someone who watched them as a tot, first-run. I loved Princess Diana. I was lukewarm, back then, about the Bionic Woman. They don’t actually compare outside of the dimensions that they are both remakes about super-powered females. They conceptually were defined as and meant quite different things when they debuted in the day.

Bionic Woman was working as a spin-off from The Six Million Dollar Man, which was based on a novel called Cyborg by Martin Caidin. WW has a wellspring of history dating back till the early 40s. As one who examines the archetypal nature of behaviorism, Bionic Woman was inferior. She never held the articulated, individual, personal history that Princess Diana did. Furthermore, she was only made possible by a male counterpart that was her predecessor. These are vast differences that, when viewed, made a great difference in their social impact.

I think it is a massive mistake handing this project to a completely untalented, cliche-ridden writer and producer and trying to replicate the success of a series.

Instead, they should have turned this project over to a capable, talented and at least slightly creative, producer (Kelley is not). I don’t understand why some don’t see this. All they have to do is look and learn.

I compare this current effort to network television releasing Cathy Lee Crosby’s Wonder Woman… a miserable failure that, in retrospect, was obviously a dud. Our learning curve has not grown over the decades. They must learn from their failures once more. We are seeing history repeat. After the Cathy Lee debacle they got it right. They released the “New Original Wonder Woman” a year and a half later and struck gold. Faith to source and tone made that endeavor successful. Something Kelley, perhaps, needed to research.